'This Week' Transcript: Pirate Standoff

April 12, 2009

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SCIUTTO: Well, frankly there's not a lot that the U.S. can do.
Those three U.S. warships are hovering around the lifeboat, keeping it
within site and also preventing other pirate motherships from getting
close to the lifeboat, presumably to take the captain and their captors
away.

But they can't physically block the ship from going ashore so this
is becoming, George, really a race against time.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And is there any thought being given at all to
actually storming the lifeboat? We've seen the French have done that
twice in recent days with French boats.

SCIUTTO: I think the situation has become so tense that they know
that the risk of that kind of operation has always been high. Yesterday
when a U.S. Navy launch came just close to the lifeboat, the pirates
responded by firing warning shots. I think that was a sign really of
the danger you're in.

Also on Friday you saw a sense of that when French special forces
raided a French ship that had been kept by hijackers and one of the
hostages was killed in that operation. That is the outcome certainly
that the U.S. Navy wants to avoid.

And for more on this we are now joined by one of the top U.S.
officials in the anti-piracy effort. Admiral Thad Allen, the command of
the U.S. Coast Guard. Welcome back to THIS WEEK.

ADM. THAD ALLEN, COMMANDANT, U.S. COAST GUARD: Good morning, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's stick with the situation on the ground -- or
at sea right now off the coast of Somalia and Kenya. Is there anything
else U.S. officials can do besides waiting and hoping that negotiations
bear fruit?

ALLEN: Well, George, the way the command and control structure is
set up, General Petraeus's Fifth Fleet is actually running the
operations. He is what is called the supported commander. General Ward
of the Africa Command is a supporting commander, as is the rest of
government.

And there really is a whole of government approach going on right
now. Everybody is working the problem. But the tactical operations,
obviously, are being directed by Fifth Fleet.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you believe that they are -- knowing what you
know about tactical operations, they are actually following the best
practices at this point?

ALLEN: They are. And again, that's General Petraeus's issue
there. We're very close the Maersk Corporation. I talked to the CEO,
John Reinhart, this morning. Of course, you know, our big concern is
for the safety of the master.

And we really feel for his family and we are trying to stay in
close contact with him and work through what we would call the
interagency to make sure this is a whole government approach.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And we do know that he is safe?

ALLEN: They have indications in the last 24 hours, yes.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So taking the broader problem of piracy in the
last three months in that part of the world, we've seen 50 ships, this
is the first time a United States ship has been overtaken by pirates.
How much worse is the problem getting and what kind of a national
security threat does it pose?